Ferenc Puskás (1927-2006) by Csaba L

THE NEWS OF

HUNGARIAN PHILATELY ______

Volume: 38 / Number: 1 January – March 2007

______

CONTENTS:

Page

1 The President’s Corner by H. Alan Hoover 1 Kudos and Welcome 1 In Memoriam - William Domonkos and Christine Blinn 2 Society for Hungarian Philately Treasurer’s Report for 2006 by Wes Learned 2 Chicagopex 2007, 16-18 November 2007 by Csaba L. Kohalmi 2 2006 New Issues 3 The Registered Letters of Hungary’s 1918 Airmail by Endre Krajcsovics 6 Complete List of the 47 Second Inflation Air Mail Covers Recorded in Chronological Order by Robert B. Morgan 8 140th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Independent Hungarian Mail Service by Stephan I. Frater, M.D. 12 Report from Our Man in Budapest by Tom Phillips 12 Memories of Hungary, 1956 by Csaba L. Kohalmi 22 The 1919 Bácsszenttamás Overprint by Mihály Bodor 24 Lajtabánság Western Hungary by Csaba L. Kohalmi 24 What I Saw on eBay by Csaba L. Kohalmi 25 Ferenc Puskás (1927-2006) by Csaba L. Kohalmi 26 The Local Issue of Pártosfalva by Mike Rigsby and Csaba L. Kohalmi 29 The Editor’s Notes by Csaba L. Kohalmi 31 Continuation of the SHP Exhibit from Washington 2006 prepared by Csaba L. Kohalmi

Ferenc Puskás (1927-2006)

SOCIETY FOR HUNGARIAN PHILATELY 1920 Fawn Lane Hellertown, PA 18055-2117 USA

Established 1969

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ APS Affiliate 34 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

President: H. Alan Hoover, e-mail: [email protected]

Vice-President: Robert B. Morgan, [email protected]

Treasurer: Wes Learned, [email protected] P.O. Box 802, Powell, WY 82435-0802 USA

Secretary: Jim Gaul, [email protected] 1920 Fawn Lane, Hellertown, PA 18055-2117 USA

Directors-at-large: Stephan I. Frater, M.D., [email protected] Ted Johnson, [email protected]

Sales Circuit Manager: H. Alan Hoover, [email protected] 6070 Poplar Spring Drive, Norcross, GA 30092

Newsletter Editor: Csaba L. Kohalmi, [email protected] 910 Claridge Ct., Indianapolis, IN 46260-2991 USA

Newsletter Publisher: Chris Brainard, [email protected]

Auction Chairperson: Emmerich Vamos, [email protected] 8722 Belladona Road, Riverside, CA 92508 USA

SHP Web-site: http://www.hungarianphilately.org . ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Society for Hungarian Philately (SHP) is a non-profit organization chartered under the laws of the State of Connecticut and is devoted to the study of every aspect of Hungarian philately. SHP publishes a quarterly newsletter in March, June, September, and December. Manuscripts for publication may be sent to the Society’s address listed above. The articles published herein represent the opinions of the individual authors and the content is not to be construed as official policy of this Society or any of its officers. All publication rights reserved for SHP. Articles from this journal may be reprinted with the written permission of the Editor and the authors only. Back issues of the newsletter may be purchased for $3.00, postpaid, (when available). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Annual membership dues are $18 ($19 if paid by Paypal) for members whose addresses are in the United States. For members residing in all other countries, the dues are $25 ($26 if paid by Paypal). Dues are payable in January in advance for the calendar year. Payment of dues entitles members to receive the newsletter, to participate in the sales circuit and the quarterly auctions, and to exercise voting rights. Send dues payments to: The Treasurer, P.O. Box 802, Powell, WY 82435-0802 USA. Paypal payment may be made to [email protected].  This issue closed on 1 February 2007 The next issue will close 1 May 2007 

The News of Hungarian Philately

THE PRESIDENT’S CORNER by H. Alan Hoover

Computers! Uggh! Although I use them daily in my work, in my hobbies, in virtually every- thing I do (and yes, I even use them for the dreaded Taxman) as many of us have, for the past 4 to 6 weeks I have had serious issues with email, some days sending and receiving OK, and other days not able to do a thing. I didn’t even get any Spam! Now that was strange – missing Spam! Anyway, the powers to be told me they now have my email service all straightened out and I am sending and receiving messages. I apologize if you have emailed me any info or request and I did not receive it. Kindly resend it and I will gladly follow-up on it. Member Henry Hahn brought to my attention a September 26 -30 HUNFILA 2007 show in Budapest on Castle Hill next to the Mathias Coronation Church. It isn’t an official FEPA or FIP show but some sponsorship from FEPA is occurring. Unfortunately this timing conflicts with some other arrangements I have made; and, there was a little publicity about exhibiting at this show, so I made the decision that the society would not participate at that show. Plans though for our annual show participation and annual meeting this year are moving right along. Recall we have changed our original plans and will attend the CHICAGOPEX 2007 which is November 16-18, 2007 in Arlington Heights, IL. It is also being slated as a Pan Slavic Festival and many of our sister societies are participating. Our Editor Csaba Kohalmi has agreed to be a show contact and chairman; so please contact him for information. The exhibit applications are out already, the show expects the exhibit frames to be oversubscribed, so please apply early. I look forward to reading the rest of this issue just like you do. I especially like the “What I Saw on eBay” articles as they shed new light on how the “buyer should beware.” I’m sure that there’s follow-on in this issue. Guess that’s it for this issue. My best to everyone – spring will be here hopefully by the time we all read this! As always Ray; we will “Keep Stampin”.

 KUDOS AND WELCOME

Congratulations to our member Robert Jensen for his achievement in exhibiting. Bob received a gold medal and a special award at Mid-Cities Stamp Expo in Dallas for his exhibit, Hungar- ian Aerogrammes. Welcome to our newest member, Mr. Thomas J. MacDonough of Dover, MA. 

IN MEMORIAM

William Domonkos

It is with deep regret that we note the passing of our life member Bill Domonkos last July. Bill was member number 105 and was one of the founders of this Society in 1969 while residing in Connecticut. His first position was that of secretary, but over the years he held every other officer’s position in the Society. Later, after retiring to Las Vegas, Bill contributed his time and talent by edit- ing and publishing this newsletter for about ten years until he turned the job over to the current editor in 1990. Bill’s collecting specialty was the postal history of the Second Inflation. He exhibited na- tionally many times with great success. His life’s work included compiling The Concordance of Catalog Numbers for the Postage Stamps of Hungary that was published in 1999 as SHP Mono- graph No. 7. He will be missed.

Christine Blinn

Christine, whose membership number was 113, was also a life member who joined with her late husband, Earl, in 1970. Earl was a well-known stamp dealer and may of us acquired Hungarian philatelic items for our collections from him. 

January-March 2007 1 The News of Hungarian Philately

SOCIETY FOR HUNGARIAN PHILATELY TREASURER’S REPORT FOR 2006

Beginning Balance 1-1-2006 Expenses: (Checking-Guaranty of CA) $16,620.10 Newsletter (4 issues) $3,812.17 Income: State of CT filing fee 25.00 Auction 1,757.00 Postage (SHP Board) 113.22 Book Sales 110.00 Domain Renewal - 5yrs 127.50 Donations 116.00 Webmaster 50.00 Dues 2,301.00 Cert. of Deposit: 1 yr 10,000.00 Dues (paid by Paypal) 241.01 Cert. of Deposit: 91 day 2,400.00 Interest (checking) 26.15 Total Expenses: $16,527.89 Total Income $ 4,551.16 Beginning balance plus Income $21,171.26 Ending Balance 12-31-06: Transfers: 1st Nat’l Checking $ 4,646.37 6-16-06 Guaranty Bank of CA ($ 1,000.00) 1st Nat’l CDs 12,400.00 First Nat’l Bank of Powell 1,000.00 SHP Auction Account 1,000.00 7-7-06 Guaranty Bank of CA ($16,436.06) First Nat’l Bank of Powell 16,436.06 Total Assets: $18,043.37

Wes Learned, Treasurer



CHICAGOPEX 2007, 16-18 November 2007

by Csaba L. Kohalmi

This year’s SHP exhibit and society meeting will be held in conjunction with the Chicagopex 2007 exhibition at the Sheraton Chicago Northwest, 3400 West Euclid Avenue, Arlington Heights, IL. Arlington Heights is in the northwest suburbs of Chicago with easy access off the Northwest Tollway and I-290. In addition to our Hungarian society, the exhibition is hosting several pan-Slavic societies: Czechoslovak, Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian. Seventy-five dealers are expected to participate in the bourse. Information about entering exhibits and reserving hotel rooms can be found on the website: www.chicagopex.com. I will be the liaison for this show and will gladly provide information and printouts of applications, if needed. Our society will conduct an Executive board meeting as well as a general meeting during the show, probably on Saturday afternoon. Exhibitors are urged to send in their applications early since the exhibit fames are expected to be oversubscribed. Watch for more information in the next two issues of The News.



2006 NEW ISSUES

Issue Date: 18 August 2006

Enameled Panels of the Holy Crown

Face value: HUF 700. Stamp size: 20 x 26mm, souvenir sheet size: 140 x 103mm.

Designer: Eszter Domé. The stamps show the top cross-shaped panels of the crown.

Technical details: Printed in offset and foil em- bossing by the State Printing Office, Ltd. in an edition of 100,000 sheets.

/ Continued on the inside of the back cover/

2 January-March 2007 The News of Hungarian Philately

THE REGISTERED LETTERS OF HUNGARY’S 1918 AIRMAIL

by Endre Krajcsovics

The 1918 Airmail is one of the most remarkable events in Hungary’s civil and philatelic history. In July of 1918 Hungary was four months away from its most devastating defeat in recent history. Yet, in the spirit of innovation the nation was willing to start an international civil airmail service using some of the best pilots of the Monarchy. They were to deliver letters from Budapest to Vienna and even to Lemberg, Krakow and Kiev sent by private citizens. The service suffered a tragic setback when two flights crashed and both pilots in each of the crashes died. Nevertheless, in both cases the mail was delivered intact because the planes did not burn on the July 13th and July 21st flights. The noble experiment, however, was terminated on July 23rd from Budapest. For any philatelist interested in airmail, the 1918 Hungarian airmail represents a fascinating challenge. Every flown letter is a piece of history and a cherished rarity. The letters are representa- tions of a period of early flight history and according to philatelic literature, there were less than 7000 pieces of mail flown (6842) of which perhaps less than 3,000 survive. The challenges to collect them are multi-layered; they are historical, cultural and philatelic. The letters sent by registered mail on these flights constitute an even greater scarcity and provide a more fascinating inquiry for research. The scarcity of registered letters was established by a number of great Hungarian philatelists such as Ferenc Doszkár, Ágoston Kostyán, Ferenc Nagy, To- mas Morovics, Victor Berecz and Dr. Paul Szilágyi. Their research has led me and many other collectors to this great specialty and wonderful passion. After reading their work and over a period of thirty five years collecting over seventy covers, I have come to the conclusion that the surviving flown covers are far less than the reported 3,000 and the registered covers are well under 1,000. Registered airmail in 1918 was unique. Hungary was the first nation that permitted civilians to send registered, international airmail. Even the Austrian government didn’t allow it. Sending registered airmail was expensive. A registered postcard sent to Vienna cost 3.45 Korona while some mail cost over 10 Korona. To put this in perspective, an average Hungarian earned about 50 Korona a week. We also need to consider the fact that there was a 20 days window, from July 4, to July 23, 1918 to send these letters to their limited destinations. Registrations labels were privately printed by firms such as the Községi Nyomda Rt. and the Atheneum in 4x50 sheets of 200. The sheets were numbered from 4000 to 4999. For the 1918 airmail service, the Budapest Main Post Office (Number 4) initially ordered 1000 registration labels because they were not anticipating heavy use for this nascent enterprise. Most of the first shipment, but not all of it, was used up in the first four days. Evidence for this exists by examining articles in the Philatelica, the scholarly philatelic mag- azine, and in the anthologies of registered airmail compiled by Ferenc Nagy, Tomas Morovics, and, most recently, by Dr. Paul Szilágyi. Using this information and adding material form my own collection, I have created a grid that will show the most frequent use of the registration labels on any specific day. By organizing the grid in a sequence of 100 numbers from 4000 to 4999 and looking at their use on each of the twenty days, I was able to see clusters of registration numbers. The use of these labels was not perfect because the clerks tore the labels from sheets of 200, not necessarily using up every single registration label on given days. However, it becomes clear that the first four days of the service experienced the heaviest use of the labels. The first batch of 1000 labels seems to have run out or was pretty low in supply by July 7th. Beginning with July 8th, the Post Office started to use the second batch of labels amazingly with the same sequence of numbers from 4000 to 4999. This phenomenon became apparent when the same number showed up on two different days. I am illustrating two such covers from my collection on the following page. The two covers have registration labels with the number 4535, one used on July 5th and the other used on July 10th. I also own a cover from July 20th with a label of 4536 fall- ing very nicely into the third batch of labels. The last batch of the same numbers began on July 15th and was used until the last day of the service on July 23rd. Therefore, it is possible to own three flown covers with the same registration

January-March 2007 3 The News of Hungarian Philately numbers. It is also evident that each of the three batches of registration numbers was printed on different days because the printing process produced a variation of red ink within the label.

The cover on the left was flown on 5 July 1918, the one on the right is from the July 10th flight. Both covers have registry labels numbered 4535.

Based on this sequencing, one can almost predict the registration numbers used on each day of the flight. One can also determine how scarce these covers are. The recorded registered letters for each day as first noted by Ferenc Doszkár are a testimony to their scarcity, but where are they? Many were destroyed by soaking them off from the letters or by the attrition caused during the two world wars and the numerous problems in the past 90 years. However, most of the registration labels were never used. Therefore, the 1918 Hungarian Airmail covers are far scarcer than previously thought. Most of the high numbers from 4600 to 4999 were never used from any of the three batches and even the lower numbers were not used much in the second and third batches.

Table of Registry Label Numbers Used During the 1918 Airmail Service

Registry label 4000- 4100- 4200- 4300- 4400- 4500- 4600- 4700- 4800- 4900- sequence #s → 4099 4199 4299 4399 4499 4599 4699 4799 4899 4999 Date Recorded # of registered mail ↓ July 4 63? 03,05,19, 22,24,25, 39,43,48, 53 July 5 431 69,85 04,44,54, 20,28,42, 11,13,27, 67,76 01,07,08, 02,03, 09 28 57,61,90, 48,54,77 74,85,98 20,29,33, 05,12, 98 34,35,90, 66,67 98 July 6 169 71,96 12,24,41, 46,50,55, 73 July 7 1 61 58 54,58, 88 July 8 206 68,93,98 July 9 249 97 10,23,51, 03,06,11, 07 71,84 42,71 July 10 191 30 05,07,4 8,50,52, 53,55,7 9,87,95

4 January-March 2007 The News of Hungarian Philately

Registry label 4000- 4100- 4200- 4300- 4400- 4500- 4600- 4700- 4800- 4900- sequence #s → 4099 4199 4299 4399 4499 4599 4699 4799 4899 4999 July 11 125 85,95 25 July 12 124 72 93 July 13 97 94 76,92,94, 17,36, 95 57 July 14 1 34 2 July 15 100 53,69,74, 84,87,88, 91 July 16 59 00,07,15, 45 July 17 45 62,94 07,08,13, 24,35,38 July 18 60 67,68,78, 08 85 July 19 217 30 05,14,3 00 4,42,53, 54,55,6 0,62,65, 88 July 20 65 36,67,79 July 21 1 ? 95 July 22 66 18,20, 24,32, 40 July 23 103 78,80, 01,02, 99 03,04, 07,11, 14,46, 56,65 1 note the small volume of utilization on dates that fell on a Sunday 2 no registered mail found yet

There are so many unanswered questions about this issue that additional work remains very exciting. For example, what happened to most of the letters rescued from the July 21st crash? While, sadly both of the pilots died, the plane did not burn and the entire sack of letters were rescued and sent to Vienna within an hour of the crash (A magyar bélyegek monográfiája). Another question raises the issue of registration numbers outside of the 4000 to 4999 numbers of the Main Post Office. Dr. Szilágyi had shown us two covers from the July 12th flight with very different registration labels. Ferenc Nagy and Tomas Morovics writing in Philatelica cast doubt on the validity of labels not following the 4000 to 4999 sequence. While István Flóderer’s work on registration labels published in 1981 would allow the use of these labels for 1918, the cancellations on the stamps are not genuine. Both of these covers show the letters “AP” in Budapest touching whereas on my two covers from July 12th and on all of the other covers the letters do not touch. Therefore, I don’t think that the cancellations on either of these covers are genuine. Finally, the question whether registered airmail was flown on the first flight on July 4th was most convincingly answered by Dr. Szilágyi in the affirmative. I have three registered items flown with registration numbers 4019, 4024 and 4053 and arrival cancels in Vienna at 1:40 PM. As to how many registered letters were flown on the first day may never be answered exactly. Numbers of 4069 and 4085 used on the second day may indicate that more than 50 but less than 100 registered letters were flown.

January-March 2007 5 The News of Hungarian Philately

Hungary’s registered airmail of 1918 was a courageous and wonderful innovation, first in the world. The determination and the quality of service provided by the Hungarian Postal Service has never received appropriate recognition for their excellence. All of it was lost in the post war tragedy. Every cover discovered, every moment spent on research of this service casts the brightest light on the dedication and superb work of the people who made it happen.

References:

Berecz, Victor, The Pioneer Period of Hungarian Airmail. Flóderer, István, Magyarország ajánlási ragjegyei 1890-1977. Kostyán, Ákos, et al., A magyar bélyegek monográfiája, Vol. IV. Morovics, Tomas, Philatelica 89/2 Nagy, Ferenc, Az 1918. évi Repülő Posta előzményei és története, Philatelica 88/2 Szilagyi, Dr. Paul, The News of Hungarian Philately. Vol:35, #4 Szilagyi, Dr. Paul, The News of Hungarian Philately. Vol:36, #1 Szilagyi, Dr. Paul, Bélyegvilág, October, 1997. 

THE COMPLETE LIST OF THE 47 SECOND INFLATION AIR MAIL COVERS RECORDED 1 IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER (Updated July 25, 2006)

by Robert B. Morgan rate period 1946 weight destination country rate paid

14 May 2 12.5 grams San Francisco USA ...... 158,000,000 Pengő 14 May 4 3.5 grams Cleveland USA ...... 78,000,000 Pengő 14 May 6 5 grams New York USA ...... 108,000,000 Pengő 14 May 8 7 grams Philadelphia USA ...... 308,000,000 Pengő 14 May 10 9.5 grams Patterson USA ...... 340,000,000 Pengő 15 May 11 4 grams New York USA ...... 290,000,000 Pengő 15 May 12 5½ grams New York USA ...... 540,000,000 Pengő 16 May 16 12 grams Los Angeles USA ...... 540,000,000 Pengő 16 May 17 7 grams New York USA ...... 500,000,000 Pengő 16 May 18 6 grams Bronx USA ...... 1,640,000,000 Pengő 16 May 20 4 grams Hamilton New Zealand ...... 2,160,000,000 Pengő 16 May 20 3½ grams Arlington USA ...... 1,160,000,000 Pengő 16 May 22 5 grams Hollywood USA ...... 2,160,000,000 Pengő 16 May 25 4½ grams Sydney, NSW Australia ...... 6,160,000,000 Pengő 17 May 27 5 grams New York USA ...... 6,480,000,000 Pengő 17 May 27 4 grams New York USA ...... 6,480,000,000 Pengő 17 May 29 4 grams Los Angeles USA ...... 10,480,000,000 Pengő 17 May 30 3.5 grams New York USA ...... 10,480,000,000 Pengő 18 June 1 5 grams New York USA ...... 13,600,000,000 Pengő 18 June 1 4 grams 2 Newark USA ...... 16,800,000,000 Pengő 18 June 3 10 grams Harefield England ...... 4,100,000,000 Pengő 19 June 11 10.5 grams New York USA ...... 616,000,000,000 Pengő 19 June 14 16 grams New York USA ...... 2,016,000,000,000 Pengő 19 June 16 6.5 grams London England ...... 166,000,000,000 Pengő 20 June 17 19 grams London England ...... 380,000,000,000 Pengő 20 June 19 4.5 grams New York USA ...... 5,080,000,000,000 Pengő 20 June 19 12 grams 2 London England ...... 1,240,000,000,000 Pengö 20 June 22 8 grams New York USA ...... 20,080,000,000,000 Pengő3 21 June 24 4 grams New York USA ...... 21,600,000,000,000 Pengő4 21 June 24 6 grams New York USA ...... 41,600,000,000,000 Pengő 21 June 26 3 grams New York USA ...... 81,600,000,000,000 Pengő5

6 January-March 2007 The News of Hungarian Philately rate period 1946 weight destination country rate paid 21 June 27 4.5 grams Hammond USA ...... 201,600,000,000,000 Pengő6 21 June 29 7 grams London England ...... 100,480,000,000,000 Pengő 23 July 6 5 grams Melbourne,Vic. Australia .... 20,008,000,000,000,000,000 Pengő7 24 July 1 14 grams 8 New York USA ...... 2,001,200,000,000,000,000,000 Pengő9 24 July 11 4 grams Vineland USA ...... 2,000,400,000,000,000,000,000 Pengő10 25 July 14 5 grams New York USA ...... 9,320,000 adópengő 25 July 14 3 grams Sydney, NSW Australia ...... 13,940,000 adópengő 25 July 15 10 grams Ventnor City USA ...... 17,860,000 adópengő 25 July 16 5 grams New York USA ...... 12,580,000 adópengő 25 July 17 8 grams London England ...... 2,090,000 adópengő 26 July 20 5 grams Newark USA ...... 30,400,000 adópengő 26 July 20 5 grams Sydney,NSW Australia ...... 45,400,000 adópengő 27 July 24 5 grams New York USA ...... 151,600,000 adópengő 27 July 25 5 grams Sydney,NSW Australia ...... 226,600,000 adópengő 27 July 26 3 grams Los Angeles USA ...... 451,600,000 adópengő 27 July 31 14 grams Rahway, NJ USA ...... 2,401,600,000 adópengő

1 Three covers we did not see, but responsible reporting occurred and they are included here. 2 Registered. 7 20+ trillion 3 21 billion 8 Registered, Returned to Sender 4 21.6 billion 9 2001+ trillion 5 81.6 billion 10 2000+ trillion 6 201.6 billion .

Top left: Airmail cover sent from Budapest on 22 May 1946 to Hollywood, California. The tariff for the 5gm letter was 2,160,000,000 Pengő.

Top right: Airmail cover sent from Budapest on 11 July 1946 to Vineland, N.Y. The date was the last day for the pengő currency. The tariff for the 4gm letter was 2,000.4 trillion Pengő.

Lower right: Originally, this cover was a ‘paid by cash’ cover posted on 2 July 1946. Later, it was doc- tored up with an airmail etiquette so as to masquer- ade as an airmail cover. The author’s protests stopped this FAKE from being auctioned off twice, each time at a different auction house. 

January-March 2007 7 The News of Hungarian Philately

140th ANNIVERSARY (1867-2007) OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INDEPENDENT HUNGARIAN MAIL SERVICE

by Stephan I. Frater, M.D.

/This article was originally published by the Collectors’ Club of New York over 10 years ago. It is reprinted here with the permission of the author./

Death notice mailed on April 30, 18676; the last day of the Austrian Postal Administration. Printed matter rate, 2kr stamp on the 1863/64 issue.

After the Hungarian revolution of 1848 against the Hapsburg rule was repressed, the Austrian government suppressed any attempt for Hungarian independence. The postal service was under Aus- trian administration and the stamps were issued showing the double-headed eagle, the symbol of Aus- tria, or the picture of the Emperor with the Austrian crown. However, in the 1860’s, the situation of the Austrian government in the power structure of the European scene drastically changed. Russia, which was an ally of Austria and had helped to suppress the Hungarian revolt in 1849, turned against Austria, favoring the Slavic nationalities in the Balkans. The tension with Prussia terminated in a devastating loss at Königsgrätz, the decisive battle of the war on July 3rd, 1866. The Habsburg regime suffered extensive territorial losses: Eastern Silesia, north- ern Italy, etc. More difficulty arose after the bad harvest in the same year, the year of the ‘potato fam- ine’ in Ireland. The Austrian administration was searching for internal support within the borders of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the policy of rapprochement was pursued. In February 1867, the Royal Council was summoned in Vienna with Hungarian participation and new rules of the Government were quickly established. These rules included the establishment of the independent Hungarian mail service and culminated with the coronation of Franz Joseph as King of Hungary. The steps to form the new postal service followed a very quick drumbeat. On March 22nd, an order for the new design was placed and on April 18th, the new design was presented to the Royal Court and the stamp's printing order was issued. According to the agreement, both halves of the Monarchy used the same stamps and because Hungary was not prepared to print stamps, the order was placed with the Viennese State Printing Works. The order for the separate postal administration was published in the Austrian Postal Bulletin on April 27th and in the Hungarian Postal Bulletin on May 1, 1867, which became the official date of the independent Hungarian postal administration. The stamps carried the image of Franz Joseph with no indication of the name of the country and were printed by typographical process and carried the characteristics of the so-called coarse printing. The stamps were valid throughout the Monarchy. Five values were issued with the same design as well as stamps with ‘Soldi’ denominations were issued at the same time. The 25kr and 50kr stamps were issued on September 1st. The 50kr stamps created some controversy in Hungary because they carried the image of the Austrian imperial crown.

8 January-March 2007 The News of Hungarian Philately

May 1st, 1867; the first day of the independent Hungarian Postal Administration. Death notice, 2kr stamp if the 1863/64 issue.

These stamps remained valid in Hungary until July 31st, 1871. However, in Austria, they were in use for a considerably longer period but with different printing; the so-called fine prints. The new issue was released on June 1st with the current issue of 1863-64 remaining valid in Hungary for a brief period. The 1863-64 issue lost its validity on June 15th, thereby creating a period of 15 days during which time both designs were valid for postage. The postal agreement set several conditions: the southern portion of Hungary, more or less covering the present state of Croatia, remained under Austrian direction with Zagreb postal directorate until April 1, 1868; and the southern-most territory, the so-called Border District, stayed under the Austrian Ministry of War until January 1, 1871. The agreement placed six Romanian consular post offices under Hungarian management that continued until March 31, 1869. At this date, those offices were closed. The six offices were Bucharest, Giurgevo, Ibraila, Galatz, Ploiestie, and Fokshan. Stamps used in those offices are part of a Hungarian collection.

Romanian consular postal services; letter from Galatz to Corfu, Greece. Mailed on July 4, 1867, franked with 10 soldi stamps of the 1863/64 and 1867 issue; additional franking with 20 lepta Hermes head stamp of Greece.

January-March 2007 9 The News of Hungarian Philately

At the same time, postal stationary was also issued. Envelopes carried the same design as well as the postal money orders. A separate chapter opened on October 1, 1869 when the first postal card to ever appear in the world carried the same design of the 2kr denomination first with German and later, Hungarian text. The postcard used and intended for Hungary carried the Hungarian coat-of- arms independent of the German language used in the inscription. These postal cards were the first ones in the world. The greatest rarity of this period is the color error of the 3kr stamp printed in red instead of the normal green, of which only two copies are known to exist on cover and four more off cover. The design for the new stamps was prepared by an Austrian-trained engraver, János Unrein. It showed the image of Franz Joseph but this time the Hungarian coat-of-arms was also included in the design. The new issue was supposed to be ready by January 1st, 1871; but, because of technical difficulties, the State Printing Office was unable to have it ready in time. There was an acute shortage of the post cards and money order forms carrying the indicia of the 1867 issue of the 2kr and 5kr values. Therefore, new postal forms were released on February 15, 1871 with the new design. A large number of the 2kr and 5kr stamps were printed earlier, but rejected due to the coarseness of the print on the face of the emperor; and those stamps were ordered to the destroyed. A small amount, probably one sheet of 100 of the 2kr value, somehow survived and surfaced in the fall of 1873. One copy of this stamp exists on cover and probably less than 10 survived off cover. In May 1871, the issue was finally released and printed with the lithographic process. The earliest recorded date is May 5th for the 5kr value. The other values of the six-value set were released during May and June. The issue was originally planned to be printed from engraved plates. The engraved version started to appear from June 15th, 1871.

Mixed franking domestic double weight letter, 10kr rate, June 25, 1871 sent from Pest. 3kr postal envelope and 2kr stamp from the 1867 issue, and a 5kr stamp of the 1871 engraved issue.

The 1867 issue remained valid for postage until July 31st, 1871. Therefore, mixed franking with the 1867 issues may occur during this period, more often with the lithographed stamps, less often with the engraved stamps. The proper time period for mixed franking with the lithos is about 80 days; and with the engraved stamps, only about 40 days. An interesting little mix-up occurred during this period with the 2kr postal card of the 1867 design that was demonetized on May 31st, 1871. The stamp of the same design remained valid for two more months that resulted in some postal cards being franked with the same stamps but the indicia was no longer accepted. Both the 1867 and 1871 issues were prepared as stationery envelopes in 3, 5 10 and 15kr denominations. The 1867 issue also appeared with the 25kr value, but these envelopes postally used are scarce, with the exception of the 5kr which is fairly common with both Issues. The same design appeared on newspaper wrappers and separate designs appeared for newspaper stamps that were first prepared with lithographic and later with typographic process. In 1874, the new issue prepared by John L’Hiver was the so-called envelope issue. The plates were engraved and the five values of the first issue of this design were printed on un-

10 January-March 2007 The News of Hungarian Philately watermarked paper with colored numerals. The same design remained in use until the end of the 19th century; however, later issues were on watermarked paper with black numerals. This issue was first released in October 1874. Since the 1871 issue remained valid until the end of 1876, this created a large window for mixed frankings with the 1871 and 1874 issues. For the first time, the issue of 1874 carried the inscription of the Hungarian Royal Post.

Mixed franking on domestic double weight registered letter,20kr rate. 5kr stamp pf the 1867; 5kr engraved stamps of the 1871 issues on 5kr typographed postal envelope of the 1871 issue. Cancelled at Kostainica (Croatia) on October 24, 1871.

An interesting usage of the 1874 issue appeared during the occupation of Bosnia- Herzegovina by the Austro-Hungarian Army. The Hungarian units were in Herzegovina and the military post offices used the stamps of the 1874 issue. The Bosnian occupation forces were Austrian units. They used the then current stamps of Austria.

5kr stamp of the 1874 issue; used during the Bosnia-Hercegovina occupation. Sent from fieldpost #7 (Travnik) to Potsdam (Germany) on November 3, 1878.

January-March 2007 11 The News of Hungarian Philately

Mixed franking of the 1871 engraved and the 1874 issues of a registered third weight class letter from Zagreb to London sent on April 20, 1875. Total franking is 55kr; two additional 5kr stamps are on the reverse side.

This article covers about twelve years of postal development. During this relatively short period of time, five different issues were used. If you consider the Soldi issue of 1867 as a separate one, then we are dealing with six issues. The introduction of the postal cards was a very significant event. The postal rates remained stable over these years. The 1874 Postal Union Conference in Paris, France, eventually influenced the international rates. This era created a wonderful period of study, which is a rich field of mixed frankings. It offers an excellent view through the looking glass of philately and a valuable study of the history of the 2nd half of the nineteenth century.

 REPORT FROM OUR MAN IN BUDAPEST

by Tom Phillips

/Dated 10-26-2006./ Life in Hungary is difficult. The protests and riots are disturbing to all. Many companies are pulling out of Hungary because of the political situation and the new taxes im- posed. Just yesterday Audi in Győr threatened to close the plant because of the taxes. 5,200 people are threatened. Prices are very high and with the taxes and the VAT /value added tax/ make it so expensive. The poverty rate is increasing dramatically. I am listening to people talk and they are not happy. The malls are filled with people, but no one buys. It is not easy here. The /government/ defi- cit is at 10% and the EU wants it to be at or below 3% so that Hungary can become a full member of the EU. Projections /for the introduction of the euro/ are for 2014, but that can change. I know that things in the US are not great but they are better than here. I am planning to go back to the US to stay. Hungary is not a place to be at this time.

 MEMORIES OF HUNGARY, 1956

by Csaba L. Kohalmi The analysis of philatelic documents from the 1956 revolution was a popular topic in Hunga- ry during the 50th anniversary remembrance. Lajos Horváth published a lengthy article in the Octo- ber 2006 issue of Bélyegvilág pulling together material from multiple, previously published articles as well as from my MAFITT presentation that I made in May 2002. In the article, Mr. Horváth devoted two columns to the subject of postal service during the revolution. While the fighting contin-

12 January-March 2007 The News of Hungarian Philately ued in Budapest, obviously, there was no mail service. Still, as the fighting subsided, postal carriers started to deliver pension payments by October 29th. In the countryside, mail service was basically paralyzed by the lack of transportation. The workers of Hungary were on a general strike until the Soviets withdrew from Budapest around October 31st. Regular work would have started on Monday, the 5th of November, but the second onslaught of the Red Army on Sunday morning, November 4th, prevented that. I searched diligently for mail sent from Hungary during the revolution and through a fortunate acquisition of a large lot of letters sent to Argentina, I was finally able to document that some mail service did exist and what transpired in the senders’ minds.

Air letter sent to Argentina from Budapest on 3 November 1956. Three additional Olympics stamps were used on the back side but, unfortunately, there is no arrival postmark.

The brief German-language message on the inside was dated 31 October 1956: Dear Gertike and Emil! After today the post will operate again according to my understanding and we have fortunately survived the scare. The street fighting, the sounds of weapons and can- non, lasted all week. For the most part, we heard this from deep inside our dwelling. We have not been on the street or in the city all week long. During the fighting, I worked in the garden whether it was rain or shine. Hopefully, there will come a peaceful time when we can all work. For today, nothing more. Duci and Ernő. The writer lived in the 2nd district in the Rózsadomb area on the Buda side of the city. Their last previous correspondence before the revolution was mailed on October 18th. The next two letters were posted on November 18th and December 7th, 1956. László Hoboday also provided pho- tocopies of two envelopes, one of which is illustrated on the left, that were sent to a Hungarian refugee in Camp Kilmer. Until I explained to him the nature of the Camp Kilmer address (the camp was the distribu- tion point for Hungarian refugees entering the United States), he did not realize its significance. Because the refugees were processed rather quickly, mail sent to the camp would have missed the intended re- cipient. My family spent only five days at the camp. My parents were offered two opportunities for re-settlement before they accepted the third offer of settlement in Indianapolis. All of this transpired in the span of a few days.

January-March 2007 13 The News of Hungarian Philately

The cover illustrated on the previous page was sent from Budapest on 27 February 1957 to a Hungarian refugee in Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. It was returned to the sender on 19 March 1957 as indicated by the New Brunswick, N.J. postmark on the back (left).

On my visit to Sarasota, Florida last November, my father handed me a section from the Oc- tober 22, 2006 edition of the Herald-Tribune, the local newspaper. Pictured on the front page were Dr. and Mrs. Stephan Frater with their son Stephen taken in Hungary. The accompanying article was written by Stephen Frater, a reporter for the newspaper. In the article, Stephen, who was only 3- years old at the time, recollected his parents’ harrowing escape, another example of the oral history of the 1956 Hungarian revolution and its aftermath.

Suzy Frater, Reporter Stephen Frater, and Dr. Stephan Frater photographed in Providence, RI. Dr. Frater is holding the medical bag that he car- Dr. and Mrs. Frater with their son Stephen in a photograph taken in Hungary in 1956. ried on his flight from Hungary in 1956. (Photo by Joe Giblin / AP) (Frater family photograph) Dr. Frater worked for the National Cancer Institute in Budapest in 1956. During the revolution, he secured a car and driver from the institute and shuttled food and medicine around the city. After the freedom fight was brutally crushed by the Soviet army (the last armed resistance in the in- dustrial district of Csepel ceased on November 11th), he agreed with his wife’s wishes and planned out their escape from Hungary. In order to minimize their chances of getting caught, the Fraters decided to travel separately from Budapest to a provincial town near the Austro-Hungarian border Dr. Frater had a cancer patient. On November 26th, Mrs. Frater and her mother pulled young Stephen on a sled and walked in the snow to a distant train station outside of Budapest. In those chaotic times, trains ran only sporadically, but they managed get to the town. While pretending to search for the home of the cancer patient, they encountered a stranger who, seeing through their ruse, offered to guide them to a small cottage near the border. As time passed, a group of 22 would-be refugees gath- ered. From the cottage, a sympathetic Hungarian border guard, who knew the local terrain and the patrol schedules, escorted the group to the border. The crossing proved challenging because the refugees had to cross an icy stream on a wooden plank in order to get to Austria. Stephen was carried across by the guard because Mrs. Frater was terrified of the consequences if she slipped with him. After processing by the Austrian border police and with the aid the Red Cross, the three of them went to a relative’s home in Vienna within a few days. Meanwhile, Dr. Frater set out from Budapest along the same route on December 1st. He carried only a change of underwear stuffed into his medical bag. In the same provincial town, he encountered a railway employee, who hinted that he would help him get across the border for a fee. Dr. Frater was then directed to a friend of the man who turned out to be professional smuggler. After a few days’ delay, the smuggler took him over the border. During this stage of the escape, they had to lie on the ground several times when they saw vehicles or sol-

14 January-March 2007 The News of Hungarian Philately diers. Eventually, the family was reunited in Vienna. They desired to come to the United States, but the original quota of 5,000 was already filled. They were about the accept placement to New Zealand when the Eisenhower administration agreed to accept more refugees. In the interim, the family was reunited with Mrs. Frater’s father, who had stayed in Germany after World War II. The Fraters’ arrival to the United States was typical for most refugees: a trans-Atlantic airplane ride with stops in Shannon, Ireland, Gander, Newfoundland, and processing at Camp Kilmer. The Fraters became naturalized citizens in 1962. The following piece of oral history was related to Mike Rigsby and me back in 2001 by the late Anthony Müller. I had to dig deep into my archives to find the copy of the email and, having done so, would like to share it with everyone: Once I said I would tell you the story when I had a bit to drink. Well, since you ask, I’ll give you the short version now. I am sending a copy to Csaba Kohalmi, since we have just been discussing this. We were among the very last to get out. (I learned earlier that Csaba was one of the first.) It was the third week of November. We later learned that we crossed the border on the American holiday, Thanksgiving Day. I will start the story later (longer version would give the events of the prior week how we managed to get to Sopron.) My father managed to bribe a good communist (who was the younger brother of the local border guard commander) to take us toward the border by tractor since he had special permission to be in the fields at that time. There were two couples and a child who just turned three recently). The husband of the other couple had been released from AVO prison about six weeks before and was still weak. The weather was cold, near freezing. It had snowed recently and the fields were frozen mud at night and just freezing mud during the day. I think the guy must have gotten us about half way from Sopron toward the border (in the direction just south of Ágfalva, as I recall). He turned back in the late afternoon and we continued on foot. The refugees carried little: coats, a blanket, a water bottle, a few lengths of gold chain, a pocket knife... but with even with a light load, the going was slow. They saw no one that evening and stopped in a cut hay field at night when they could no longer see the way. They could not light even a small (shielded) fire to keep the baby (me) warm, so my mother put me in with her in her coat. Anyway, the straw was too wet to light. The group managed not to freeze to death and moved out well before dawn, under cover as much as they could, but also knowing they could not survive much longer because of the exposure. Thaw made the paths mud, so that each footfall was like picking up a pile of bricks. They reached the border late in the second afternoon and thought it would be safer to cross only after dark. The border appeared not to have been fenced, but was marked by three hummocks (tank traps), with mud or icy water between them. After dark, they crept up to the first hummock along a clump of scrub and got within five meters or so. It seems that someone else had had the same idea, since they found the bodies of a small group (men, women and children) who had been ma- chine gunned one or two nights before. Apparently they had been left there to discourage those who may have wanted to follow. Our group, however, was not discouraged and moved up to the first hummock. At that time, they heard the dogs of a foot patrol walking along the top of one of these hummocks. My father and the other man had been in the military and knew that eyes reflected light in darkness, so they all faced away from the noise and lay motionless. My father was a physician and had refused to sedate me. I think that at point he may have wished that he had done so. In any case, I did not cry and the guards passed. (As an aside, my parents told me that from that point it was over a year before I cried about anything.) Crossing the next two hummocks was uneventful. On the other side, uncertainty set in. Where the hummocks exactly at the border? Where there still soldiers ahead? As they recalled from the map, they were in a place where the border pinched in (concave toward Hungary). If they deviated too much right or left, would they walk back into Hungary? Even if it was Austria, would they freeze still to death?. The water bottle, carried inside one member’s coat, was frozen solid. Only the baby had eaten in the last 24 hours, and all were very tired and weak. No single person could carry me much longer, so they stretched out a blanket, each took a corner and put me in the middle, dividing the load amongst four. That worked for a while, though my mother said

January-March 2007 15 The News of Hungarian Philately

they bounced me as much as they carried me. After a while, they saw a bright light in the distance. They had heard that the Austrians were setting up such lights to guide refugees, so they marched toward it, but for how long? After a while the light disappeared. Had they made a wrong turn? Had they actually seen the light? After what seemed to be an infinity, the light reappeared, but it seemed to be much farther away than ever. They sat down in discouragement at the side of the farm road they were on. A large truck rumbled by them in a while, clearly Austrian, but did not stop. They thought of the irony of freezing to death there. My father more or less gave up, but my mother passed me to the other couple and said she that would stay with him. This forced him to move. The truck came back maybe an hour later. It had gone closer to the border to get others who had not come as far. The light bulb had gone out and had been replaced by a kerosene lamp. Fast forward... I'm here. Regrettably, my fellow countryman Anthony did not live to commemorate the 50th anniversary. Others did cele- brate in many private ways, philatelically and numismatically, not just this year, but at regular intervals in the past 50 years. Dr. Ferenc Nagy sent me a copy of the ‘personalized’ postage stamps created though the Austrian Post shown on the right. I made another version based on a photograph David Miles had sent me of an 1848-1956 monument that he Personalized postage stamps cre- encountered in Hungary. I tried to create ated for the 50th anniversary of ‘stamps’ through Zazzle.com using the the Hungarian revolution. symbols of the 1956 uprising (the tri- color flag with the hole in the middle, the Kossuth-crest) but my endeavors were rejected as being ‘political’ and contrary to the policy of the United States Postal Service regarding ‘personal’ stamps. So, I used the ‘neutral’ monument. David Miles also provided the illustrations shown below of the various medals minted honor- ing the anniversaries of the 1956 freedom fight.

The front and reverse side of the silver medals minted in 1966 (left two) and in 1986 (right two).

Bronze medallions struck for the 1993 Congress of 56ers (left two) and in 1991 for the withdrawal of the Red Army from Hungary (right two). The label on the general’s hat reads KOHEЦ! meaning THE END!

16 January-March 2007 The News of Hungarian Philately

Life for refugees, despite the outpouring of aid, was hard. Whatever their destination was, they faced an uncertain future lacking language skills. The Austrian government was interested in re- locating the refugees as soon as possible in order not to strain the country’s charitable organizations. The United States started airlifting refugees by early December. Those who chose to go to Australia faced a 30-day voyage around Africa because the Suez Canal was blocked by sunken ships.

Ungarnhilfe balloon flight cards from Switzerland from the collection of Dr. Paul Szilagyi. The sale of the cards raised funds to help refugees, 5,000 of whom settled in Switzerland/

The next two items are from the editor’s collection and represent mail send to refugees.

Left: Letter sent from Bágyogszovát on 26 Jan. 1957 to a Hungarian refugee in Andau, Austria. Right: Letter sent from Budapest on 10 Oct. 1957 to a Hun- garian refugee at a camp in Siezenheim, Austria. On the next page, I’m illustrating several unusual items. The first is a hammer and sickle inside a five-pointed star ‘overprint’ that I found on several pieces of mail sent to Brazil in 1957-58. Obviously, it is a fabrication; but, the question is: by whom? The next item is a postal card send from Mexico to UN Secretary General Dag Hammarksjöld urging action to stop Soviet aggression in Hun-

January-March 2007 17 The News of Hungarian Philately gary. The third item is a postcard published by the United Nations during the World Refugee Year showing Hungarian refugees landing in Brazil. The last item is a Sabena first flight cover from Brus- sels to Budapest on 13 March 1957. This flight was originally schedule for early November 1956 and covers were submitted in late October. Because of the second Soviet invasion on 4 November 1956, the flight was postponed until the spring of 1957.

Left: The mystery hammer & sickle ‘overprint’ on a 60f Pidgeon stamp from a letter sent to Brazil. The date on the cds is 2 Feb. 1958.

Below: Postal card sent from Mexico on 31 May 1957 to UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld protesting the Soviet aggression in Hungary.

Above: Hungarian refugees landing in Brazil to build new lives.

Left: Sabena first flight cover sent to Budapest on 13 March 1957. The item was mailed from Luxembourg-Ville on 31 October 1956 for ser- vicing on the flight that was originally sched- uled to take place in early November 1956.

Right: Bronze medallion from the Miles collection commemorating the declaration of the Third

Hungarian Republic on 23 October 1989. My family arrived in Indianapolis by train on the evening of 21 December 1956. Union Sta- tion was bustling with holiday travelers, and we had entered a new world of bright lights, automo- biles, and television. Our first free Christmas held out the hope of a better life in a free society. In- terestingly, one of the items I received along the way was a small parcel containing items for a child my age. The package was put together by pupils at a public school in Indianapolis. I started to go to school in January. My next few years were consumed with learning English and continuing the process of assimilation. We, too, became naturalized citizens in 1962. 

18 January-March 2007 The News of Hungarian Philately

THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATIVE PRZEMYSL BALLOON FLIGHTS

by Gábor Voloncs

/This article originally appeared in the January 2005 issue of the Szabolcsi Bélyegújság. It is reprinted here with the permission of the author. Translated by Csaba L. Kohalmi./

At the time of the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy’s largest fortification system was located near the town of Przemysl in Eastern Galicia (now Poland). Starting in 1876, the military leadership constructed an expansive system of forts around the town. This capture of this key fortification became the chief objective of the Russian army. The siege of Przemysl began on 12 November 1914 and lasted until 20 March 1915. Since the Austro-Hungarian positions in the fortification were completely surrounded by the Russians, outside postal traffic was possible only by airplane. In addition, between 20 January and 13 March 1915, mail-carrying balloons were launched on 15 occasions trusting in favorable winds and good luck to carry out the news. The fortress command printed 10,000 special postcards mostly on blue paper, although some bluish-gray paper stock was also used. Soldiers could purchase these cards for 50 fillérs. The cards were inscribed FELDPOSTCORRESPONDENZKARTE and had a straight-line, violet Ballonpost Przemysl 1915. cancel applied along with the postal code number for Przemysl, IX. 54 in a circle. Additional markings on flown cards included the two-line text K.u.K. Festungsartillerierregiment Fürst Kinsky Nr. 3. / Festungsballon-abtielung Nr. 1. and the word ZENSURIERT using violet ink. (See Fig. 1.)

Figure 1. Figure 2.

Five small, unmanned balloons were launched on 20 January with the sole purpose of carrying the special postal cards from the besieged town. Two of these were found, one on May 18th at Lemes located in Sáros county; the other on June 20th at Margitfalva located in Szepes country. On March 7th, three additional balloons were launched, only one of which was found on March 19th at Turja Remete. The cards on this find were cancelled with the fieldpost cds K.u.K. Feldpostamt 47 in Cracow and forwarded to the intended recipients. (See Fig. 2.) Two more balloons were launched, but the dates for these are not know. Since these were not recovered, most likely they fell into Russian hands. According to some sources, the balloons carried a load weighing 600 grams sealed into a double-wrapped, water tight package. Since each card weighed 1 gram, each balloon would have carried 600 postcards. Other sources state the weight of the load at 2 kilograms. Most likely, both are correct since the weight-carrying capacity of the balloon depended on its size. In this case, not all balloons would have been the same size. On March 19th, five so-called ‘Freiballon’ balloons were launched from the fortress. These were manned balloons and each had a name: the Przemysl landed in Nowograd Wolhyns; the 1,000m3 Austria landed 44 km to the south-east of Brest Litowsk; the 1,000m3 Erzherczog Josef Ferdinand landed 60km from its start in Brest Litows; and the 600m3 Schlicht landed in Sokal in Galicia. The first balloon, the 600m3 Steirmark received heavy Russian fire upon launch and was destroyed. In other words, all five balloons landed in enemy territory. The cargo of each was mostly military pa- pers, a large part of which was destroyed on purpose by the crews. The only postal material to sur-

January-March 2007 19 The News of Hungarian Philately vive was carried on the Austria. Russian censors processed this mail at St. Petersburg and transferred it to the Danish Red Cross. It eventually arrived in Vienna, where it was censored again before deliv- ery to the addressees. In 1925, the organizers of the 2nd Hungarian Philatelic Day decided to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Przemysl balloon post by organizing a memorial balloon post to commemorate the heroes, especially since the majority of the troops stationed inside the fortifications were of Hungarian origin. The plan was to drop balloons containing postcards over the capital and along the route from a special Budapest-Miskolc airplane flight. The plan was successfully presented to the postal directorate and received tacit approval. The proposal stated that the postcards retrieved from the balloons would be treated as ordinary mail and forwarded to the addressees. Due to inclement weather, the planned Budapest-Miskolc flight had to be cancelled. The flight was rescheduled for a week later; but, surprisingly, the postal directorate refused permission. Therefore, the original con- cept of dropping balloons along the route was foiled. In the planning stages, Márton Höniger designed a commemorative cancel that was to be used for the flight covers. (See Fig. 3. on the left.)

Figure 3. The committee that planned the special flight included the following notables: Elemér Khayl, the President of the Hungarian Stamp Collectors’ Organization; László Szalay Újfalussy, the President of the Hungária Stamp Collectors’ Society; Virgil Vigadi, the President of the National Federation of Amateurs; also György Rákosi, Kamil Aggházy, Tivadar Kormos, János Kühn, János Örvös, István Khayl, Gyula Grósz, and Jenő Szabó Antal. Also, Przemysl balloon post commemorative vignette was designed as part of the 2nd Hun- garian Philatelic Day. (See Fig. 4.) The committee commissioned graphic artist Jenő Haranghy to prepare the design. The vignette was produced in four versions: 2,000 in greenish-black, 200 in black, 100 in violet and green colors. In addition, 25 presentation pieces printed on cardboard stock were produced in greenish-black color. Following the completion of the production, the printing plate was destroyed on 23 December 1925. The document attesting the destruction of the plate is shown in Fig. 5. Perforated greenish-black vignettes were used on postcards carried in the balloons.

Figure 4. Figure 5.

20 January-March 2007 The News of Hungarian Philately

Five different colored postcards, printed on thin paper stock, were produced for the commemorative flight. These cards in gray, blue, green, pink, and yellow colors really imitated the colors of the original Przemysl airmail cards and were not true to the Przemysl balloon post cards that are know only in blue and greenish-blue colors. The front of the postcards carried instructions to the finders to deliver the cards to the nearest post office for mailing. Also, the text Ballonpost Przemysl 1915 was rubber stamped in black. The back side of the cards carried a brief description of the history of the Przemsyl balloon post in Hungarian and in German. The postage stamps affixed to the cards was cancelled in red with a 35mm diameter design showing envelopes scattering from a balloon along with the text II. Figure 6. Magyar Filatelista Nap Budapest 1925. (See Fig. 6. on the left.) A 200K stamp was used to frank the cards. The intent was to pay the correct rate for mailing printed matter to the intended recipients. Approximately 25 to 50 rolled-up cards wrapped with parchment paper were tied to each balloon. The following instruction was affixed to each package: The Federation of Hungarian Stamp Collectors’ Organizations requests the finder of these commemorative cards to please mail the cards at the nearest post office. The federation also requests the trustworthy finder to notify the federation president, Mr. Elemér Khayl bank director (Budapest, VIII. Rákóczi út 11.) about the facts surrounding the finding of the package was well as the exact time of mailing. The federation will send a letter of appreciation to the finder. With thanks and patriotic greetings, the Federation of Stamp Collectors’ Organizations. The balloons carrying the postcards were launched starting at 9:30AM on 3 January 1926 from the highest point of the Citadella building complex located on Budapest’s Gellért Hill. The launch was supervised by the organization committee despite the fact that the postal directorate did not support the endeavor. The final balloon was sent aloft at 10:45AM. Most of the balloons took off in a southeasterly direction and disappeared from view at about 1000 meters in elevation. In all, 35 large and 2 small balloons were launched. (See Figs. 7 and 8 for examples of flown postcards.)

Figure 7. Postcard mailed from Kiszombor. Figure 8. Postcard mailed from Soroksár.

The contemporary philatelic publication, the Filatéliai Kurir, published the following report about the found cards: Approximately 700 were returned in total, although the possibility exists that a few more will turn up. We don’t believe, however, that the totals will change much. The same issue also published the first letter to arrive from György Tóth, a retired police officer, about the discovery of a balloon in a field near Üllő: I was walking in the countryside on Janu- ary 3, 1926 when, around 11:20 it started to rain and a balloon or small, soaked package fell to the ground. I picked it up and took it home. I opened the package and mailed the cards on the 4th. Most airmail cover collectors know very little about the 1926 Przemysl anniversary balloon post. The reason for this may be that the cards were mailed from many different locations. Most Hungarian airmail collections contain only one or two examples of flown cards. In the past, it was hard to find data about the number of balloons launched or the time of launch. Only the Donaupost publication discussed these topics at all. The location of balloon findings is shown in the accompanying map on the next page. The contributors listed at the end of this article helped to compile the data showing when and where the mail was posted and by whom.

January-March 2007 21 The News of Hungarian Philately

Mailed from Date post- Found by ed Kalocsa January 3 Felsőgöd January 3 Albertfalva January 5 Debrecen January 5 Üllő January 5 György Tóth, retired police officer Alag January 6 Berettyóújfalu January 9 Kecskemét January 9 Ócsa January 9 found in Alsónémedi by János Varga, 2nd grade pupil Ócsa January 10 found in Alsónémedi by István Juhász, Jr. Kiszombor January 11 Sári January 11 Péter Bozsik Soroksár January 13 Baja January 14 Margit Benkó Kispest January 18 Bátaszék- January 18 Mrs. Károly Sárbogárd TPO Beöthy, wid- owed Budapest 72B January 19 Szekszárd January 23 Mrs. Károly Beöthy, wid- owed Újpest January 27 Map depicting the flight of the released balloons based on the locations of the finding. Gyömrő May 31 János Kazinczi Tápiósüly see note Note: To date, no postcards are known from the Ráckeve see note last three entries in the table; however, these Tiszacsege see note towns have appeared in articles in the past and I

am including them for the sake of completeness It is interesting to note, also, that a postcard exists from the Alsónémedi finding without a commemorative vignette. Another unusual item is the card from Felsőgöd with a purple vignette and another from the Budapest finding with an imperforate vignette (see Fig. 9.).

The compilation of the cards was possible though the cooperation of several collectors. Most of the postcards have been scattered throughout the world in the past 80 years; and since only 25 to 50 examples from each of the findings can exist in the hands of collectors, it is significant that we were able to map out the locations of the 23 recovered balloons from the 37 that were launched. In com- parison, the contemporary issue of Donaupost listed findings for only 13 such locations.

Figure 9.

22 January-March 2007 The News of Hungarian Philately

I would like to express my appreciation to my philatelic friends, who helped with this project: Zoltán Koleszár, Dr. Paul J. Szilagyi, the late Zsolt Debreceni, István Dobák, László Borbély, György Szirtes, and Gábor Visnyovszki. I will be more than happy to add any new discoveries to the list.

/The two examples illustrated above are from the editor’s collection. The card on the left was posted from Kecskemét on January 9th. This confirms that cards were mailed from Kecskemét, a town that was originally listed by the author as a ‘possible finding.’ Since the original article was written and published, another card posted from Kecskemét surfaced in Hungary and was reported in the May 2006 issues of the Szabolcsi Bélyegújság. The card on the right was cancelled by the travel- ing railway post office No. 135 Bátaszék-Sárbogárd on January 18th and is a new addition to the author’s table. This card was endorsed by Mrs. Beöthy, who also posted cards from Szekszárd on Jan- uary 23rd. Since the railway line between Bátaszék and Sárbogárd runs through Szekszárd, this post- ing and the one five days later could represent a single finding from the same balloon. At the same time, the five days’ separation between the two postings could mean that Mrs. Beöthy actually found two balloon postcard packages./



THE 1919 BÁCSSZENTTAMÁS OVERPRINT

by Mihály Bodor, philatelic expert

/SHP Member Dick Stark acquired the complete set of the Bácsszenttamás overprints illustrated below at a recent Darabanth auction after spirited bidding for HUF 280,000 (~US$1,400) plus commission. The expert opinion statement supplied by the auction house was translated by Csaba L. Kohalmi./

The expert opinion about the twelve illustrated stamps, overprinted in grayish-black ink with the text Naslednik Prestolla Aleksander 25. VII. 1919. Srbobran in Cyrillic letters follows. (The translation of the text is Alexander Heir to the Throne 25 July 1919 Bácsszenttamás.)

January-March 2007 23 The News of Hungarian Philately

Győző Weinert mentioned this overprint first in his catalog (Magyarország Levélbé- lyegeinek Katalógusa 1850-1925) published in Pozsony/Bratislava in 1925. He wrote the following: Fabrications. In honor of the then Crown Prince Alexander’s visit to Bács- szenttamás/Srbobran, Hungarian stamps were overprinted with the text ‘Naslednik Pres- tolna Aleksander 25. VI. 1919. Srbobran’ in Cyrillic letters. The noble intentions are based on a fairy tale since these stamps are fabrications and were never issued for postal use. The following values are known with this overprint: 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 15, 25f Harvesters; 10, 20, 40f Károly-Zita; 10, 20f Magyar Posta. The 6f value is also known with inverted overprint. Inasmuch as the overprint was completed using actual printing type, it is noticeable that the fabricator of the printing made mistakes in setting the type in the word ‘Prestolna.’ Instead of a small letter ‘t’ he used a capital ‘T,’ in lieu of the Cyrillic ‘l’ he used a Latin ‘l’ and, furthermore, instead on a Cyrillic ‘n’ he used a Cyrillic ‘l’ thus creating the word ‘Prestolla.’ Weinert states that the issue date of the stamps was 25 June 1919 (25. VI. 1919.). All of the Bácsszenttamás private issue stamps that I have encountered were used on the date 25 July 1919 (25. VII. 1919.). The quantity prepared for this private overprint is unknown. It is more scarce than the private issues of Pancsova, Zombor, and Pétervárad. Although this was not prepared for postal use, the stamps can be found on postal mailings since the Serbian postal authorities did not explicitly prohibit the use of private overprints in the occupied territories. Only the strict ad- herence to correct postal rates was monitored. (Reference: Slobodan Bajić, Marke izdate u Temišvaru u vreme srpske uprave 1919, Beograd, 1998, p. 29.)



LAJTABÁNSÁG WESTERN HUNGARY

by Csaba L. Kohalmi

Chris Brainard provided the scan of the reverse side on a fifth issue postage due stamp. The enlarged illustration shows the authenticating mark of Lieutenant György Winter-Laczay. According to Leslie Ettre’s monograph, Winter-Laczay at first wrote his initials ‘W G’ in pencil. Later, he switched to the rubber stamped ‘G W’ shown below. He used a red inkpad for this example.



WHAT I SAW ON EBAY

by Csaba L. Kohalmi

Ebay continues to be a busy marketplace for the ordinary, the unusual, and the bogus philatelic material. The quantity of listings of obviously forged occupation overprints is simply overwhelm-

24 January-March 2007 The News of Hungarian Philately ing. Despite our information campaigns and warnings, buyers seem not to care and throw all caution to the wind and pay high prices based on pure faith in the sellers’ integrity. The glaring color changeling forgery of the 3kr 1867 coarse-beard stamp (Austria, Scott No. 29c) was probably the most unusual sighting recently. Unfortunately, I cannot illustrate it in color, but it had a faint reddish tint to it. The seller’s starting price was 20 pounds sterling that would have been a steal for this world class rarity, had it been a genuine example. The second item of note was a fantastic 1918 registered airmail postcard from the July 13th flight that crashed near Mosonmagyaróvár. The mail from that flight was salvaged intact and taken to Vienna by train. The card was sold for over US$600! It is illustrated below. Hungarian imperforate stamps have become very popular items in the past year. There has been a steady stream of offerings for ‘classical’ issues from the mid-1910s through the late 1950s. Imper- forate stamps from this period sell for quite impres- sive prices. The demand for later issues (the Hun- garian Post finally stopped marketing imperforate stamps at the end of 1991) is steady, but not as strong for the earlier material. This trend represents a turn-around since such limited-issue stamps were ‘black-blotted’ by the APS in the 1960s and 1970s. There are significant numbers of bidders from Hun- gary looking to snap-up these stamps. An eBay seller from Great Britain offered a lot of three Przemysl 10th anniversary balloon cards. All three of the mailings were already included in Gábor Voloncs’s table (Debrecen, January 5th; Berettyóújfalu, January 9th; and Újpest, January 27th). Nevertheless, inspired by the Voloncs article, I was happy to snap up the lot.

13 July 1918 airmail crash cover.



FERENC PUSKÁS (1927-2006) by Csaba L. Kohalmi Worldwide, he was by far the best known and most popular Hungarian personality in the past 60 years. The left-footed footballer, nicknamed ‘Öcsi’ in Hungary, the ‘galloping major’ elsewhere, was the captain of Hungary and played 84 times in the national squad. In the era of attacking soccer, he scored 83 international goals. His only club team was the Budapest Honvéd, the team of the People’s Army in which he held the rank of major. He was Hungarian national champion and top goal scorer multiple times. He played for Hunga- ry’s gold medal winning team at the 1952 Helsinki Olym- pics. Between 1950 and 1954, the Hungarian squad went undefeated until that rainy on the 4th of July in Bern when the streak ended and the favorite Hungarians lost the World Cup final to West Germany, 2:3. The 1956 revolution found him a stateless person who managed to re-invent himself as a Spanish citizen and a star player for Real Madrid. Teamed with another classic player, Di Stefano, Puskás culminated his playing career by

Hungarian President László Sólyom deliver- Januarying -theMarch eulogy 2007 for Ferenc Puskás. 25 The News of Hungarian Philately

winning the European Champions Cup. He made a brief appearance on the Spanish squad in the 1962 World Cup. After his retirement he coached in Canada, Egypt and Greece. He returned to Hungary for the first time in June 1981 (and your editor had the great pleasure of watching him play again in an old boys’ game). His absence from Hungary between 1956 and 1981 is just another example of the talent losses to Hungary caused by the failed freedom fight. As his health declined in the past 10 years, a grateful nation continued to bestow honors on him. The People’s Stadium was re-named Puskás Stadium in his honor. He was voted into the top 10 players of all time in the game of soccer. Upon his passing, he was given a state funeral. Hungarian President László Sólyom delivered the eulogy during the funeral service that was held in St. Ste- phen’s Basilica. He was laid to rest in the crypt of the basilica.

Ferenc Puskás exchanging pen- Ferenc Puskás shown in action nants with English Captain Billy against West Germany during the Stamps picturing Puskás Wright before the ‘Match of the World Cup final in 1954. from the Congo, Nicara- Century’ in 1953. gua, and Centr al Africa.

Left: Surviving team members Gyula Grosics and Jenő Buzánszky paying their respects. Right: Puskás’s flag- draped coffin and the Honor Guard of the Republic. /Photos from the website of the Magyar Nemzet Online./



THE LOCAL ISSUE OF PARTOSFALVA

by Mike Rigsby and Csaba L. Kohalmi

About a year ago, Mike purchased a set of stamp overprinted with the letter “H” in an eBay auction. This purchase started a discussion amongst Mike, Roger Morrell, Chris Brainard and me to determine the genuineness of the stamps. The seller Dejan provided the article that is reprinted below. The article was translated from Serbo-Croatian with the aid of Mike’s friends from Hungary, Pál Nagy and Juliet Szabó. The following article, written by V. Gregorčić of Zagreb about the “H” overprint on Hungari- an stamps, was translated from Vogel’s Internat. Briefmarken-Offerblatt, Pössneck i Th. (Journal

26 January-March 2007 The News of Hungarian Philately of stamp recommendation of Vogel International) that was issued as Appendix No. 883 to the May 10th issue of the journal. The overprint is classified as a local issue of the Hungarian town of Pártosfalva during its four day occupation by Serbian and Croatian troops. Towards the end of December 1918 Serbian troops arriving from Radkersburg (Steiermark) and Croatian troops arriving from Alsó-Lendva crossed the Hungarian border and occupied Pár- tosfalva in Vas county. Immediately following the occupation they began overprinting stamps with the “H” letter signifying Croatia (Hrvatska) in purple, a few in red, and the local post office brought them into circulation. On the fifth day of the occupation, the Hungarian troops arriving from Szombathely (Steinemanger) forced out the local guard of the enemy and the issue of these stamps ceased. Some overprinted Hungarian stamps survived; however, most were lost in the strife of war. Only a few hundred survived of certain values, the majority brought into circulation by the Pártosfalva post office. This issue was named for this locality. Due to the unknown quantity of issued stamps, they are considered to be a great rarity for the post-war period. In any case, these stamps are one of the rarest stamps of the countries of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. A few pieces later came into circulation that were used from the stock remaining in Pártosfalva. The following values exist with the “H” overprint: the Harvesters stamps of 2, 3, 5, 15 and 20 fil- lér values; the 10 and 20 fillér stamps with the portrait of King Karl, and the 40 fillér stamp with the portrait of Queen Zita. The date of cancellation found on these stamps was “919 Feb 5.” We can see an advertisement by the firm “Marken” und Ganzsachenhaud, Berlin W. 8, Friedrichstrasse 162 und 83” offering the aforementioned stamp for sale. A much more detailed story about these stamps was originally authored by Dr. Leslie Ettre and published in the May 1972 issue of the News of Hungarian Philately. Dr. Ettre re-published the story in the June 1995 issue of the Stamps of Hungary as a follow-up to Roger Morrell’s inquiry in the March 1995 edition of the same journal. Roger had purchased a Pártosfalva cover sent to Carl von Matzenau on 7 February 1919 and wanted to know more about the origins of the overprint. Besides mentioning the period of ‘occupation,’ the above article lacks a discussion about the origins of the stamps. From the covers that are illustrated, we also know that the article did not take into account all of the stamps that were available for ‘overprinting.’ The set of stamps purchased by Mike is shown on the left. Note that the set includes all of the values listed in the article above. The ‘overprint’ of the letter “H” is very distinct and neat- ly centered. The “H” is well- formed with straight vertical stems and with a cross-bar that makes a square connection. All the lines forming the “H” are uniform in thickness. It has been assumed that the hand-stamped local issues of Croatia were created using letters carved out of a piece of cork. The carver of this “H” did a near-perfect job! Mike was highly suspicious of the set for the reasons stated. We then started comparing the Pátrosfalva overprints purchased from Serbia stamps with overprints found on four covers, one of which was purchased by Chris Brainard in a similar eBay auction. The first two covers shown on the next page are from the editor’s collection; the second two covers are from the Brainard and Morrell collections. It is interesting to note how the “H” was placed

January-March 2007 27 The News of Hungarian Philately on the stamps. On the editor’s cover, the “H” is sharply angled on 2-3-5 fillér Harvesters stamps; on the Brainard cover, the “H” is more or less perpendicular on the same stamps. On both covers, the Sürgős stamp bears an “H” lying on its side. Note that the Sürgős stamp is not listed in the translated article nor was it part of the ‘set’ purchased by Mike. The editor’s two covers were cancelled on 12 January 1919. The cover on the left is not back-stamped. The cover on the right was backstamped Budapest on January 14th. The Brainard and Morrell covers were sent to Carl von Matzenau in Ber- lin. The Brainard cover (left) was posted on 14 January 1919: the Morrell cover was posted on 7 Feb- ruary 1919. It is interesting to note that the registry etiquette numbers for the January 12th and 14th covers are 173 and 182, respectively. The number for the February 7th cover is 353. Chris mentioned that approximately 39 covers have been recorded as having been posted through March 1919. All of these seem to have been posted AFTER the short occupation of Pártosfalva by Serbian troops had ended.

12 January 1919 covers from the editor’s collection.

Brainard (left) and Morrell (right) covers sent to Germany.

Left: single stamps photographically ‘lifted’ from the editor’s covers. Right: 10f Károly stamps from the Rigsby set.

28 January-March 2007 The News of Hungarian Philately

There are a total of 18 “H” overprinted stamps on these covers. I’ve enlarged two of the stamps to better show the characteristics of the “H” that happens to be quite different from the “H” found on the Rigsby set. Mike had suggested a different title for this article: A Fool and His Mon- ey… Conclusion? It’s a risky undertaking to buy mint examples of locally overprinted occupation- era issues. Today, even the major Hungarian auction houses are offering complete, mint, sometimes never hinged, sets of occupation locals! It’s hard to believe so many examples survived!



THE EDITOR’S NOTES

by Csaba L. Kohalmi

APS President Janet Klug authored a full-page article titled Starting a new collection: Hun- garian overprints and occupation stamps that appeared in the October 23rd edition of Linn’s Stamp News. Her premise was that these stamps can be acquired at nominal cost and they present a picture of the turmoil that Hungary experienced as a result of the aftermath of World War I. She concluded her article by publishing the address of our Society. Rick Miller’s article Stake your claim to a topical collection of vampire and Dracula stamps appeared in the October 30th issue. He briefly told the story of Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel that was loosely based on the 15th-century Wallachian ruler Vlad III Tepes, who is tied by history to Hungary and Transylvania. Several Dracula stamps bear the portrait of Hungarian actor Béla Lugosi whose name became synonymous with the portrayal of the monster in Broadway plays and movies. István Glatz recounted his experiences during Washington 2006 in a two-page report published in the November 2006 issue of Bélyegvilág. He devoted several paragraphs to his contact with our Society and expressed hope that the cooperation between SHP and the Hungarian philatelic community with continue to grow and prosper. David Miles sent me a copy of the 64-page booklet, Rise Up! The 1956 Hungarian Revolu- tion - A People’s Sacrifice. The illustrated booklet that was compiled using only volunteer help pre- sents a fine montage of the events preceding the revolution as well as the daily happenings and the international reaction following the brutal crushing by the Red Army. The booklet is available for a donation equaling the cost of postage from The New Hungarian Voice, P.O. Box 74527, Kitsilano P.O., Vancouver, BC Canada V6K 4P4. The minimum needed to cover the costs are $5 within Cana- da, $8 to the USA and $14 overseas. If interested, please make a check payable to The New Hungari- an Voice. By the way, David contributed illustrations of philatelic mementoes of the revolution. An- other contributor was our life-member Zoltán v. Kőrössy. The 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution also inspired a new generation of books:  Revolution in Hungary: The 1956 Budapest Uprising by Erich Lessing,  Twelve Days: The Story of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution by Viktor Sebestyén,  Failed Illusions: Moscow, Washington, Budapest, and the 1956 Hungarian Revolt by Charles Gati,  Journey to a Revolution: A Personal Memoir and History of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 by Michael Korda,  A Good Comrade: János Kádár, Communism and Hungary by Roger Gough. The January mail brought several interesting publications from Hungary. In the December 2006 issue of the Szabolcsi Bé- lyegújság, Gábor Voloncs announced the sensational discovery of a copy of the first-printed 5kr stamped envelope. As we know, in late- 1870 the State Printing Office was attempting to print the first domestically-produced stamps and postal stationery. Large quantities of the 2kr and 5kr Ferenc József-head stamps were printed; but, because of the unsightly, blotched appearance of the ruler’s profile, the stamps were rejected and destroyed. Only a few 2kr values survived. The three postal stationery items produced (5kr stamped envelope, 2kr postal card, 5kr money order) were equally poor in reproducing the king’s profile. Since there was a postal need for Indicium for the first domestically printed Januarystamped-March envelope. 2007 29 The News of Hungarian Philately

the postal cards and money order forms, these two items were pressed into service. The production run of 10,000 5kr envelopes was thought to have been destroyed in its entirety; however, Gábor happened on an example in a box of un- checked items he accumulated over the years. The annual minutes of the MAFITT general meeting highlighted an on-going scandal in the Hungarian philatelic community. This scandal has been the topic of multiple articles in the Bé- lyegvilág and the Szabolcsi Bélyegújság, also. In the 1980s, hundreds of forged pre-stamp letters surfaced in Hungary through the fabrication efforts of a printer/heraldry painter in town of Pápa. This individual (or two individuals) faked pre-stamp cancellations on 19th century paper stock acquired from the archives of an institution in Pápa. Prominent Hungarian philatelists purchased these items, marketed them abroad with the aid of a stamp dealer in Vienna and another ‘expert’ from the Nether- lands. These covers found their way into exhibits at international stamp shows; and, I believe, there were even a couple of items in the Gary Ryan collection. By the early 1990s, red flags were raised about these covers. Initially, the BÉVI, the stamp authentication committee of Mabéosz, gave con- flicting reports about the authenticity of these items. Later, the Gervay Postal History Foundation started to purchase these covers to remove them from circulation. It is still not know how many are floating around the Western European philatelic marketplace. The President of MAFITT unsuccess- fully proposed a joint effort to rid the world of these fakes to the President of Mabéosz. The controversy even entered the courtroom as the named parties sued and counter-sued each other. The bot- tom line is that the authenticity of all Hungarian pre-stamp mail covers is suspect until the ex- perts agree to clear up this mess once and for all! The above controversy demonstrated how split the Hungarian philatelic community is. The once-mighty (near 100,000 membership) Mabéosz currently has only 5,673 adult and 1,878 youth members. I have noticed in the past few years that the quality of the contents of the Bélyegvilág sank badly, while upstart publications such as the Szabolcsi Bélyegújság seem to have filled the gap. The Szabolcsi Bélyegújság has better researched scientific/philatelic articles, while the contents of the Bélyegvilág is more on the order of philately-lite. Mike Rigsby’s letter in the October-December 2006 issue reminded me of the last time that I encountered Soviet soldiers in Hungary. It was during the summer of change in 1989 when I was vis- iting Hungary with my family. My wife, daughter and I took a side trip to Veszprém on a Sunday afternoon. Members of the Soviet garrison from the nearby base at Hajmáskér were on leave in the town looking for some entertainment and possibly to pick up some girls. All of them seemed young, mostly in their late teens and early twenties. Since all were wearing in their dress uniforms, they did appear to be a threatening bunch. It was quite different from the last group that I saw on 4 November 1956 in Mosonmagyaróvár. I tried to point them out to my daughter, but I don’t think that she re- members. She had just turned 10 that summer. The last topic that I would like to mention belongs in the What I Saw on eBay column, but I need to make a strong editorial statement about this item that was offered for sale by an SHP member as well as to illustrate the shenanigans that are being perpetrated in the Hungari- an marketplace to the detriment of philately: The stamp shown below was purported to be the 1956 12f Sopron overprint issue No. 22 with MEFESZ Sopron and BÉVI guarantees. The stamp should exist in a quantity of 100 only. Unfortu- nately, it is a FAKE because the real overprints of the 12f stamps were on the Buildings Series II stamps depicting the worker’s flats of Komló, not the Buildings I series, Újpest SZTK Clinic. The seller listed the stamp as having a ‘guarantee.’ The lesson learned is that back- stamp guarantees are not worth the miniscule amount of ink used to pro- duce them. The BÉVI guarantee mark of the Hungarian Stamp Col- lectors’ National Federation is also subject to forging and belongs in the same category: WORTHLESS! And,

30 January-March 2007 The News of Hungarian Philately

shame on any Hungarian collector, NOT TO MENTION A MEMBER OF SHP, to offer such rubbish for sale at whatever price without identifying it as FAKE!!!!! This particular stamp sold for US$100.



CONTINUATION OF THE SHP EXHIBIT FROM WASHINGTON 2006

January-March 2007 31 The News of Hungarian Philately

32 January-March 2007 The News of Hungarian Philately

The exhibit was prepared by Csaba L. Kohalmi

 2006 NEW ISSUES (Continued from page 2)

Issue Date: 20 October 2006

In Memoriam 1956

Face value: HUF 500. Stamp size: 40 x 31.5mm, souvenir sheet size: 89 x 65mm. Designer: Péter Berky. The design shows the Hungarian tri-color flag with a hole cut in the middle against a backdrop of a photographic montage of the events of the revolution. Technical details: Printed using offset by the State Printing Office, Ltd. in an edition of 150,000 sheets. The hole in the flag is an actual cutout.

Issue Date: 27 October 2006

Christmas 2006

Face value: HUF 52. Stamp size: 40 x 30mm. Designer: György Kara. Photographer: János Hutschit. The design is same as that of the HUF 30 Christmas stamp from 2002. Technical details: Printed by the Banknote Printers, Ltd. in quantities required by postal demand.

Above: 2006 Christmas stamp.

Left: In Memoriam 1956 souvenir sheet.

FOR SALE: BOUND VOLUMES OF THE NEWS OF HUNGARIAN PHILATELY

Book # Volumes Years 1 1-3 1970-1972 2 4-6 1973-1975 3 7-9 1976-1978 4 10-12 1979-1981 5 13-15 1982-1984 6 16-18 1985-1987 7 19-21 1988-1990 8 22-24 1991-1993 9 25-27 1994-1996 10 28-30 1997-1999 11 31-32 2000-2001 to be announced 33- 2002- (new format)

Each book individually is priced at $30.00 or purchase the entire set of 11 for $320.00. Freight fees will be added to all orders. Order from:

January-March 2007 33

H. Alan Hoover, 6070 Poplar Spring Drive, Norcross, GA 30092; tel: (770) 840-8766, e-mail: [email protected]

COMMEMORATIVE 50 FORINT COIN AND 500 FORINT BANKNOTE ISSUED FOR THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1956 REVOLUTION AND FREEDOM FIGHT